Join the Catholic Institute of Sacred Music for the final event of our Spring 2024 Public Lecture and Concert Series.

The History of the Graduale Romanum

Lecture by Fr. Cassian Folsom, O.S.B.

Saturday, April 27, 2024

10 a.m. PDT

Free Admission

This lecture is offered online via Zoom. Space is limited.

Please RSVP only if you can attend the live lecture; please do not RSVP here if you are looking only for archived access. Archived access to the lecture will be available via the CISM YouTube channel.

About the Lecture

The history of the Graduale Romanum is long, complex and full of surprises. Knowing some of that history is a great help in understanding the status of liturgical music today. This conference will be limited to a history of chant books used for the Mass. (Chant books used for the Divine Office is another story for another time.) The period of time we’re dealing with extends from the Council of Trent to the post-Vatican II era. We will briefly describe six books: 1) the Medicea edition of the Graduale Romanum (1614–1615), 2) the Solesmes movement and the Liber Usualis (1896), 3) the Graduale Romanum commissioned by Pope Pius X (1908), 4) the Vatican II document on the sacred liturgy and the Graduale Simplex (1967), 5) the Graduale Romanum of 1974/1979 and the Graduale Triplex (1979) and finally, 6) the Graduale Novum (2011/2018).

Because there is so much material, an in-depth study is not possible in this conference. Rather, we will focus on the highlights, and try to trace the ever-present tensions between tradition and reform.

About the Speaker

Father Cassian Folsom, O.S.B., is a scholar of sacred music and liturgy, a cancer survivor, and the founder and prior emeritus of the Monks of Norcia. Born in Lynn, Massachusetts in 1955, Fr. Cassian studied music before joining the monastic community of Saint Meinrad in 1974. He founded his monastic community in Rome in 1998 and transferred it to Norcia in the year 2000. Over the last 20 years, the Monastery di San Benedetto has grown, attracting new vocations and pilgrims from around the world. He has retired as prior but continues to serve the community and teach liturgy at the Pontifical Atheneum of St. Anselm in Rome.

About the Series

The Public Lecture & Concert Series of the Catholic Institute of Sacred Music welcomes the general public to St. Patrick's Seminary to hear from preeminent scholars about topics which have a profound impact on the Church and humanity, inviting them especially to consider the Church's wisdom on matters related to the worship of God, the spiritual life, beauty, and works of art.

We invite you to join us for these important and inspiring events.

About the Catholic Institute of Sacred Music

Founded in 2022, the mission of the Catholic Institute of Sacred Music is to draw souls to Jesus Christ through the beauty of sacred music and the liturgy.

The Institute offers a substantial program of accredited, graduate-level coursework designed to help church musicians and clergy better to know and love the Church’s treasury of sacred music and her teachings on sacred music. Our goal is to equip students with the theological, philosophical, and historical knowledge, as well as the practical skills (singing, playing, conducting, composing, organizing, fundraising) necessary to build excellent sacred music programs in parishes and schools. We aim to help others revitalize the faith of Catholics and instill vitality in parish and school life through a vibrant sacred music program.

We are committed to a faithful and generous service of the Church. We cultivate fidelity, resiliency, a healthy sense of creativity, and selflessness within our student body and faculty as characteristics of our service as we labor together in the vineyard of the Lord to bring in a rich harvest.